When preparing juices for the winter, housewives often give preference to apple or pear juice, completely forgetting about such a healthy drink as grape juice, which can be made very simply at home.
At the same time, the juice is considered a real life-giving elixir; it saturates the body with vitamins, minerals, organic acids, natural sugars, fiber and amino acids.
The product is immediately absorbed by the body, promotes cell rejuvenation, removes cholesterol and cleanses of toxins. It is recommended to include the drink in medical and baby food as a means to improve immunity and fight cancer.
Grape juice in a juicer
The easiest way to prepare grape juice is to use a juicer. By spending a minimal amount of time and ingredients, you can get a tasty and healthy drink for the whole family. At the same time, berries of any variety are suitable for preparing juice for the winter, for example, juicy Cabernet grapes, the tart-sweet Isabella variety, or the sugary-sweet Bianca variety.
White grape juice
Ingredients:
- Berries – 10 kg
- Sugar - according to taste preferences.
Algorithm for preparing a healthy drink:
- Sort through the grapes, removing spoiled and crushed specimens.
- Rinse the bunches under running water and transfer to a juicer container. Sprinkle the fruits with sugar.
- Pour water into the lower compartment of the juicer. Place a container on top to collect juice and place a bowl with berries.
- Place the device on the stove, turn on low heat.
Attention! During cooking, you need to stir the grape mixture periodically.
- Cook the juice for 60 minutes, covering the juicer with a lid.
- At this time, prepare sterile jars and lids.
- Pour hot juice into glass containers. Roll up the jars with lids.
- Cool the occlusion by turning the jars upside down under a woolen blanket.
- Store the preserved food in a cool, dark place.
Beneficial properties of berries and leaves
Due to the abundance of beneficial microorganisms and nutrients, the berries of this variety are endowed with a large list of healing properties, among which the following stand out:
- Increasing hemoglobin levels due to high iron concentration.
- Increased tonic effect due to the high content of antioxidants and anticyanins. Their amount is three times higher than the concentration present in other grape varieties.
- Thinning the blood and improving the physical and chemical composition of the blood.
- Improving the digestive properties of the body and strengthening the gastrointestinal tract (gastrointestinal tract).
- Strengthening the muscle and bone structure of the body.
- Normalization of metabolism and removal of toxic substances from the body.
- Prevention of cancer.
Isabella grapes are recommended to be eaten unpeeled, along with the skin and seeds, since these parts of the fruit contain a high concentration of beneficial microorganisms, for example, catechin and polyphenol.
According to research by the world medical and nutritional communities, to restore the body's resources and maintain vitality, you should eat about 100 grams. grapes of this variety or drink an equivalent amount of juice per day. At the same time, juice from the fruit is more useful, since it contains an increased content of potassium, carotene and vitamin C.
The leaves and stems of this grape variety also have beneficial properties, as they contain a large amount of mineral salts, which is why they are actively used in alternative medicine for the preparation of ointments and various decoctions. In their natural form, after crushing, the leaves are used as an ointment to disinfect shallow wounds, abrasions and cuts, and a decoction from this part of the vine is used to prevent seasonal colds.
Juice from grapes through a juicer
It is very convenient and quick to prepare grape juice at home if you have a juicer in the house, and a simple recipe will help you prepare it.
Red grape juice
Ingredients:
- Berries – 5 kg
The procedure for preparing the drink is as follows:
- Separate the berries from the branches. Remove spoiled, limp, unripe fruits.
- Soak suitable berries in water for 40 minutes to remove any remaining dust and debris. Drain the grapes in a colander, rinse under running water and dry on cotton towels.
- Using a juicer, extract grape juice. Pass the drink through several layers of gauze 2 times in a row.
- Heat the drink to a temperature of 60 degrees and leave for 2-3 hours until a sediment forms.
- Pour the juice into another pan so that the sediment remains in the old container.
- Place the pan with the drink on the fire, bring the liquid to a temperature of 90 degrees.
- Pour the juice into disinfected jars and seal.
- Cool the roll upside down under a warm blanket.
Attention! The drink does not lose its beneficial properties for 3-5 years.
Description of Isabella grapes
Bunches of grapes are distinguished by their presentable and attractive appearance due to the small black berries with a bluish tint with which they are sprinkled. The berries have a pleasant pulp with a pronounced strawberry flavor and a slimy structure. The pulp is contained under a dense and durable peel.
The optimal time for planting seedlings is spring, but they can be planted in the fall, as well as closer to winter. The berries ripen within 180 days from the moment the first buds appear. The bushes are tall crops, and the clusters are of medium size.
The grapes are characterized by high yields, which can reach up to 70% from 1 hectare of land. Productivity depends on climatic conditions and geographical features of the region in which the crop is grown. Due to the relatively late ripening period of the berries, the grapes are harvested from September to October.
Hand-squeezed grape juice
Another option for making juice from grapes is suitable if you don’t have a juicer or juicer at hand. After all, juice can be obtained by hand pressing.
Products:
- Grapes – 5 kg
- Sugar - to taste.
Prepare the drink in the following way:
- Place the prepared berries in a deep container and mash them with your hands or a wooden pestle.
- Strain the resulting grape pulp through cheesecloth or a sieve into another pan, mixing with granulated sugar.
- Pour the drink into jars.
- Sterilize the workpiece in a water bath for 20 minutes.
- Seal the jars with sterile lids.
- Cool the workpiece and store it in the pantry.
Homemade grape juice
Recipes for homemade grape juice and products based on it.
At home, you can prepare not only grape juice in its pure form, you can enrich the taste by using a variety of fruits and additives. Let's consider several interesting options.
Recipe No. 1
Ingredients:
- Isabella grapes - half a kilo.
- Pear and apple - one fruit each.
- Granulated sugar - 50 grams.
Preparation.
We process all fruit and berry components in a juicer, add sugar and the juice is ready to drink. If the drink prepared according to this recipe is prepared for the winter, then it will need to be subjected to heat treatment. Bring the liquid to a boil and boil for 20 minutes, after which you can roll it into jars. If desired, sugar can be replaced with honey; you will need less of it: 30 grams. You can prepare a mint decoction that goes well with grape juice. To prepare it, take: a glass of water, 30 grams of honey, mint leaves. Mix all ingredients and cook for 15 minutes. Add the cooled mint infusion to the prepared drink.
Recipe No. 2
If the grapes are too sour, it will be difficult to make a good homemade drink from them. But sour grape juice is an excellent base for sauces for meat and poultry. We prepare juice from sour grapes using a juicer or manual method.
Ingredients for the sauce:
- a glass of sour grape juice;
- garlic - 2-3 cloves;
- ginger - 30 grams;
- butter - 50 grams;
- pepper and salt.
Preparation.
Peel the garlic and ginger and chop as finely as possible. Fry it all in butter, five minutes will be enough. Add grape juice to the pan and evaporate it by about 2/3. At the end, add salt and pepper to the sauce and it can be served. The sauce is sweet and sour with a spicy taste.
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Recipe No. 3
This version of grape juice prepared at home is suitable for those who have a vineyard consisting of a variety of varieties. Tart, sweet and sour varieties are ideally combined with each other.
Ingredients:
- “quiche-mish” - kilogram;
- “Isabella” - kilogram;
- any sour grapes - a kilogram.
- Sugar - 500 grams.
Preparation.
Extract the grape juice by hand or through a juicer. Dilute it in a 3:1 ratio with water, add sugar. We sterilize and seal the finished drink. See above for sterilization times.
Recipe No. 4
It may seem a little strange, but leaves and grapes can be used to make grape juice. This drink is used in cooking, cosmetology and medical nutrition. It speeds up metabolic processes, which promotes weight loss. Nutritionists recommend this option to everyone who is losing weight.
Ingredients:
- grapes with leaves and twigs - 4 kilograms;
- water - 2 liters;
- sugar - a full glass.
Preparation.
Wash the grapes directly on the tassels along with the leaves and pass them through a juicer. Boil water mixed with sugar and pour the syrup into the liquid. After sterilization, it can be stored in the refrigerator (up to 3 months) or sealed. For weight loss, drink diluted with water 1:1. The product is effective for acne; you need to wash it for a week. In this case, there is no need to add sugar, just dilute the liquid with water.
Grape juice straight from the pan
At home, you can prepare juice similar to store-bought juice using the suggested recipe.
Ingredients:
- Sugar – 1 kg
- Water – 2 l
- Grapes – 5 kg.
Procedure for preparing the drink:
- Prepare washed, sorted and dried berries.
- Pour the fruits into a saucepan, crush a little with a wooden spoon and add water. Place the liquid on the fire and simmer for 30 minutes over low heat.
- Strain the resulting drink through cheesecloth into another pan.
- Bring the liquid to a boil again, add granulated sugar. Boil for 10 minutes.
- Pour the juice into disinfected jars and seal with lids.
- Cool the seam under a warm blanket and store it in a cellar or pantry.
How to choose grapes for juice
Half the success depends on the correct choice of fruits. The drink is prepared from any grape variety, including white. The taste and benefits of each are excellent. Using the best wine varieties, you get healthy and tasty juice. It contains a high content of vitamins and optimal levels of sweetness and acidity:
- Berry selection. The drink is made from ripe juicy berries. Definitely fresh. The fruits must not be damaged. Rotten specimens significantly spoil the taste of the finished juice.
- Of the white varieties, the muscat variety is more suitable.
Making grape juice at home is not at all difficult. After spending a little time in the summer, the whole family will enjoy a healthy drink in winter.
Apple-grape drink with lemon
You can make a tasty and healthy drink from a sweet grape variety for the winter, combining it with the juice of sour apples and lemon. The resulting drink is suitable as a delicious dessert for every day, improves digestion and saturates the body with vitamins.
Grape
- Berries - 3 kg
- Apples – 2 kg.
- Lemon – 2 pcs.
The drink preparation algorithm is as follows:
- Separate the grapes from the tassels, sort and soak in cold water for 40 minutes.
- Dry the fruits and pass through a juicer.
- Leave the juice for 2-3 hours until a sediment forms. Filter the drink through cheesecloth twice.
- Rinse the apples with water and dry. Cut the fruit into 4-8 parts, removing the “tail” and the seed box.
- Using a juicer, extract apple juice. Filter the drink.
- Wash the lemons in soapy water and rinse with boiling water. Extract the juice using a citrus juicer, cutting the fruit into two parts.
- In an enamel saucepan, mix three juices: apple, grape, lemon.
- Bring the juice mixture to a temperature of 90 degrees and pour into sterilized jars. Cover the jars with lids
- Sterilize the workpiece for 20 minutes in a water bath.
- Preserve the jars with lids, turn them upside down and wrap them in a woolen blanket.
- After a day, move the blockage to a cool place with humidity no more than 70-80%.
Attention! Before consumption, dilute the juice by half with water.
How to quickly and easily prepare grape juice for the winter (video)
Many people believe that it is impossible to make anything other than wine from grapes at home. In fact, these fruits produce very tasty and healthy juice. The process of preparing this drink, although painstaking, is within the power of absolutely everyone. It turns out very rich and aromatic, and most importantly – healthy.
Thanks to its unique composition, grapes have valuable health properties. And the characteristic taste and aroma of the fruit deserves to try to preserve them longer. The easiest way to extend the season for eating sunny berries is to make drinks and preserve them for the winter. The juice retains its unique flavor bouquet, most of the vitamins and various microelements.
The taste, color and consistency of the finished drink directly depend on the ripeness, variety and method of grinding the berries. Separating the liquid from the fruit is a straightforward task, but excellent quality juice requires attention to all stages of production, starting with the selection of grapes.
- 1. The best juices are obtained from wine hybrids: Isabella, Cabernet, Lydia. A drink made from dark fruits of technical varieties has a rich taste and beautiful color. Light fruits are also used, but if the juice comes out pale, it is tinted with a small addition of bright berries.
- 2. The main stage of preparation is separation from the pulp: pulp, seeds and peel. By mechanically grinding the pulp and then squeezing it, the taste becomes more intense with a pleasant tartness. If the seeds and peel are separated without chopping, the drink will be light and soft.
- 3. If the fruit is properly ripe and sweet, it is not necessary to add sugar to the preparations. If an unripe product is used or the variety is not sweet enough, then during the cooking process add 50 to 100 g of granulated sugar per 1 liter.
- 4. It is permissible to chop dark grapes without removing them from the bunch. Its branches contain tannins, which enriches the taste and does not harm the keeping quality. White varieties must be separated from the cluster, otherwise the juice takes on a greyish, unpleasant color.
While sorting through the fruits, spoiled berries are discarded. It is better to make jam or marmalade from wilted and raisin-like specimens. Bursted after heavy rains, cracked, without signs of rot, are acceptable for processing into juice or wine. In preparation, special attention is paid to cleaning the grapes: they are washed in several waters, trying to remove all the waxy coating. The surface of the peel contains yeast fungi that promote fermentation processes; if possible, they should be washed off.
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You can separate the juice from the pulp at home in several ways, the easiest of which is to squeeze it out by hand. Mash the berries by placing them in a colander, or use a fine sieve. After which the mass is squeezed through a filter cloth and layers of gauze.
For large volumes of workpieces, it is convenient to use other methods. Methods for chopping and squeezing berries:
- 1. Blender or meat grinder. The raw material is ground together with the peel; the juice after this extraction requires filtration.
- 2. Juicer. Produces a cleaner product, the pulp comes off almost completely. It will be necessary to regularly free the working parts from the thick mass of waste (cake).
- 3. Juice cooker. The machine performs all functions independently; you just need to place the fruits in a special compartment and turn on the “cooking” mode. During the process, you should mash the steamed berries several times with a puree masher. The finished juice can be immediately packaged in sterile containers and stored for long-term storage.
At room temperature, the fermentation process in the drink begins already on days 2-4. In order for the juice obtained by any of the methods to last longer or to stand all winter, it will require several more stages of processing.
It’s easy to make a healthy drink from grapes and prepare it for storage. The whole process fits into simple step-by-step instructions:
- 1. Sorting and thorough washing of raw materials.
- 2. Grinding fruits and separating juice.
- 3. Heat to a boil and cook for 15 minutes.
- 4. Pouring boiling drink into bottles or jars.
- 5. Sterilization in an open container for at least 20 minutes.
- 6. Tight sealing with treated, clean lids.
The resulting product has a concentrated, strong taste and may be harsh for baby food. Therefore, during the cooking stage, the juice is often diluted with water to the desired consistency.
Proportions for preparing a diluted drink with sugar:
- grape juice - 1 l;
- clean drinking water - 0.5 l;
- granulated sugar - 50 g.
The amounts of sugar and water are standard; they are changed as necessary, bringing the drink to the desired taste. All ingredients are added when the product is first heated, making sure that in this case the juice boils before pouring. The next important stage, which will affect the shelf life of the products, is sterilization in jars before sealing.
The high sugar content in the fruit is an undeniable advantage of grapes, but in combination with yeast fungi on the surface of the berries, they create an excellent environment for fermentation. This property is used in making wine, but it poses a threat to juice. To prevent the drink from fermenting and retain all its original characteristics, several principles must be followed, among which pasteurization is mandatory.
Stages of sterilization of the product in jars:
- 1. Place a wooden base on the bottom of a wide pan with high sides.
- 2. Place jars of juice and fill the container with water so that at least 2/3 of the glass container is immersed.
- 3. Place the pan on medium heat and keep for 15-20 minutes at a temperature of about 85 degrees, without bringing to a boil.
- 4. Remove the jars and quickly seal them with sterilized lids.
Double pasteurization provides a complete guarantee that the juice will not begin to ferment during storage. To do this, the entire process is repeated twice, in between cooling the workpieces to room temperature. As a result, the product becomes almost transparent and is ready for preservation.
Sometimes the drink needs to be further clarified and removed from turbidity in order to give it a better appearance. By removing the remaining pulp, the liquid is simultaneously rid of tartar (hardly soluble suspended particles). Clarified juice becomes clearer and its taste is softer.
In order for the dregs and cream of tartar to settle to the bottom, the drink requires a long period of settling, at least 2 months. Therefore, the juice is canned according to the standard recipe, but the lids are screwed on without pasteurizing the product. After about 60 days, sediment accumulates at the bottom of the jar, and the rest of the liquid becomes transparent. This means it’s time to uncork the container, carefully drain the drink from the sediment using a tube and, after packaging it in jars, carry out pasteurization.
The timing of grape juice clarification is affected only by storage temperature. At +2 °C the tartar will settle in 2 months, at +10 °C it will take at least 90 days.
You can sterilize the entire volume of juice at once by pouring it into a large container and placing it on low heat. Without bringing to a boil, heat the liquid for about 10 minutes and re-pour into treated jars.
The good thing about grapes is that all of its parts can be used in cooking. The separated cake (pulp) is used to prepare wine vinegar or processed into chacha. Even if the juice or jam from berries spoils during storage, this does not mean that the canned food should be thrown away. The fermentation process that has begun can be used to make wine.
The undeniable benefits of the berry are fully preserved with proper processing. By maintaining sterile containers and pasteurizing the finished product, you can preserve grape juice at home until the next harvest.
Grape-grapefruit juice without sterilization
Another option for quickly preparing grape juice is to prepare it without sterilization. And to give the drink a little sourness, you can add citrus fruits, such as grapefruit, to the product.
Components:
- Grapes – 2kg
- Lemon – 0.2 kg
- Grapefruit – 1.5 kg
- Sugar – 0.3 kg
- Water – 0.3 l
- Cinnamon – 2 g.
Grapefruit-grape juice
The procedure for preparing a delicious drink:
- Sort the berries, separate them from the branches and rinse thoroughly.
- Extract the juice from the berries using a juicer. Filter the liquid through cheesecloth or flannel cloth.
- Wash citrus fruits and separate from the zest. Using a juicer, extract juice.
- Boil water, adding sugar and cinnamon. Pour boiling liquid into citrus juice.
- Pour grapefruit-lemon juice into grape juice.
- Boil the drink for 10 minutes.
- Pour the juice into disinfected jars, seal and cool.
- Store the seam in a cool room, protected from direct sunlight.
